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College students electrify 1939 Pontiac

A group of Roanoke College students are converting this 1939 Pontiac DeLuxe Eight to electric power. Photo by Roanoke College/RC Electric

Jake Lingeman's Big Rhonda, this ain't. However, like our associate editor's 1963 Star Chief, this 1939 Pontiac DeLuxe Eight bears a long-departed Pontiac nameplate and is currently undergoing a refresh.

Students at Roanoke College in Virginia are in the process of taking the tired old Pontiac from ruin to roadworthy—with a twist. They've pulled the Silver Streak straight-eight and are planning to swap in an electric powertrain.

The project began in 2010, when a group of environmentally minded students founded RC Electric, a club devoted to making the campus more energy efficient.

This particular DeLuxe began life as a station wagon in the strictest sense of the word, employed by the Greenbrier resort in West Virginia to fetch its tony clientele from the rail stop. The Roanoke kids found it at Oliver's Garage, in Blacksburg, Va., and purchased it for $1,500. Since then, they've set about restoring the body shell, painting it in a school-spirit-inspired burgundy pearl.

Though currently sans powertrain and interior, the student group hopes to have the car ready for the college's spring 2014 Alumni Weekend. In the meantime, the Virginia Museum of Transportation is interested in displaying the car over the winter, though dates have yet to be finalized.

We're always heartened to see college kids tackling hands-on automotive projects, whether it's the bleeding-edge techy business happening over at Stanford, Formula SAE programs across the country or labors of love by a group of forward-thinking students. Plus, we simply don't see enough '39 Pontiacs of any stripe. Good on RC Electric for choosing an EV platform outside the norm.